2017 Building Diversity Awards: Code Unlimited LLC

When Oliver Wendell Holmes said, “A young man knows the rules; an old man knows the exceptions,” he might well have had the construction industry in mind. It is nearly impossible for someone to walk onto a job site, point at anything and not have it subject to a rule, a law,or a code of some sort.

Code Unlimited LLC is a Beaverton-based consulting firm that focuses on identifying and simplifying how those myriad rules and laws and codes might affect a project.

Samir Mokashi, the founder and president of the firm, earned his undergraduate degree in Mumbai before moving to Oregon to pursue a master’s degree at the University of Oregon. He later moved to Portland in the middle of the Great Recession so that his wife could complete a doctorate in microbiology at Oregon Health and Science University.

Initially partnered with another firm from 2005, Mokashi broke away to establish Code Unlimited in 2011. Since then, the firm has flourished, growing to 20 employees and earning recognition as a minority-owned business that strives to promote diversity in its workforce. The firm currently includes several women in leadership roles—something outside the ordinary in the male-dominated construction, contracting and engineering communities that Code Unlimited and its staff serve.

In the past several years, Code Unlimited has worked on a wide variety of projects, offering the ability to quickly adjust to changing codes and multiple agencies for their clients. Major projects include Park Avenue West; the Oregon State University Student Experience Center; the Oregon Health and Science University Collaborative Life Sciences Building; the Priest Rapids Dam in Yakima, Washington; and ongoing consultations for SolarWorld in Hillsboro.

The firm also has worked on the Cornelius-Woodlark project, which involved the renovation of several buildings that were part of a hotel complex built in 1908.

“There were probably no set codes when it was built,” Mokashi said, “but now we can use alternative materials and methods that will meet modern code requirements and probably exceed them.”

Code Unlimited was listed as a top minority employer in 2016 and actively supports staff with flexible schedules, professional training and mentoring.

“We look for curious, intelligent people,” said Mokashi. “That naturally attracts diversity. I’ve found that if you build on good, it will grow well.”